Virginia Beach for the best sand, but Long Beach (California) for the best waves. Virginia Beach has soft sand with very little rocks and debris, but many beaches I’ve been to in California (both southern like Long Beach and northern like Santa Cruz beach) have a ton of sticks poking out, so it’s not super fun to walk on. But if I remember correctly, VA beach has decent waves (like not too big, but not too small) while Long Beach gets these amazing waves… even to a point where they might close it down for safety. xD
Is there an ocean-swimming location you really liked?
My whole family has experiences, but to keep this post short, I’ll just talk about my own since there’s only been a couple. But if you want, I can talk about what we’ve all experienced?
Before I move on to this first story, though, there needs to be a small bit of clarification. I have quite a large family, but there used to be one other sibling. Someone I’ve never met before. That’s because he died a few years prior to my birth. His name was Dirk, and he was six years old when he passed away from getting hit by a drunk driver. He would be thirty-two years old today (1988–1994). There is quite a bit more odd experiences my family (particularly for my parents and one of my sisters) has experienced that includes him…
Sleep Walker
The first ghost experience I’ve ever had was when I was roughly ten years old. We lived in California at this time in a nice big house. Big enough that I had my very own room for the first time. This started as any other night, though. I climbed up the stairs and crawled into bed. But it took a weird turn when I started talking out loud as if I was having a conversation. Memory is a bit fuzzy, so a part of me wonders if I actually was having a conversation.
As I talked, it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t dreaming anymore, and I “woke” myself up, realizing I was now in the living room, sitting on the couch. The clock our DVD player had said 2am, and for a moment, I was confused. I went to bed upstairs… how did I get down here?
You could say I slept walked, but I never had any experience with sleep walking before. Most people do, or at least if it was a first time, there’s other times as well. My sister, for example, was very bad at sleep walking as a child—to a point where my parents had to barricade the front door and lock it. She eventually got out of the cycle, though sleep walks today from time to time. But even if I did sleep walk, it was the only time I’ve ever done so.
In the next moment, I heard something and turned to face the noise which was at the other end of the couch. And at the end of the couch was a white figure that wasn’t see-through at all. Just a solid, white color. Faceless. It crouched on the other side of the armrest, but you could tell they had long legs. My first thought, which I said out loud, was “Dirk?” It was 2006, so he would’ve been eighteen.
I turned my head for a second, though I don’t remember why, and when I looked back at the same place, the figure was gone.
Bathroom Demon
This was the only other time I’ve had an experience, and it happened when I was fifteen. At the time, we were camping at this campground in Colorado for a bit. Parts of the campground were open to the public such as their park and the bathrooms (across the way). These bathrooms had normal toilet stalls and then separate rooms for showers (walled in, a full door to close yourself in).
The bathrooms were very echo-y, so you knew if someone was in there or not. And honestly, I wasn’t the only one who had experiences here.
One night, I had to really go, so I left the comfort of the RV and walked to the bathrooms… I’m shy when I have to poop (mostly because of the smell and noises) and honestly, if I can, I’ll wait until everyone leaves to actually go. Well, like any other time, I strolled in and first checked to make sure no one was there. The shower stalls were all open with lights off and all the toilet stalls were open as well, the room completely silent. So I took that as a go-ahead and chose a stall.
As I sat on the toilet, my eyes casted downward to the bottom of the stall’s door. It’s very typical in America to have big gaps in the stalls, so it was big enough to see someone’s shoes or shadow walking by. But as I stared at the tiled floor, a black mass moved from left to right. I can’t explain what it truly looked like other than that, though.
My first thought was that the lights turned off as they’re motion censored (and were hard to turn back on if you were sitting on the toilet) but they usually turned off after fifteen minutes of inactivity. I wasn’t in there for very long, and even then, my peripheral vision could still notice the light still being on.
My second thought was someone was in the room with me, but that couldn’t be right. I checked the entire room and no one was here. The door was very loud when opened, so you couldn’t just not hear it even if you spaced out.
I couldn’t think of anything that would cause it, and knowing that my family had experiences themselves, it heightened my senses and made me want to GTFO… which, after quickly finishing up, I did.
Have you had any experiences? Or do you believe in ghosts?
I’ve never heard of that band until now and I just listened to some of their songs. Pretty cool. I found a couple that were good. I mostly love the instrumental background. xD
How do you feel about them?
Our dresses were purple, long and flowy, and strapless. xD
But here’s a picture to better describe it, haha.
I’m on the right with the short black hair. My three sisters are in the middle (of course, the bride; my little sister up front, my oldest sister next to the bride (blonde)) and my mom in black.
The main thing was customer service (my current job is customer service lol but it’s better than the hotel). xD
Before going to night audit (front desk), I did the “lower-classed” jobs like dishwasher, breakfast attendant, pool attendant (just a glorified lifeguard), etc. At the hotel I used to work at, I started as a breakfast attendant. It was hard labor, but never had to deal with guests (technically). Heck, I barely talked.
The main question at the time was what would happen when my parents left (my mom managed the hotel). We came in June of 2019, I started doing breakfast in September. My parents ended up leaving to Texas for another job in March of 2020. Since it would go to new management (an employee who’d been working there for years; my mom was supposed to show her the ropes), they were unsure what would happen to me since my sister and I were staying. I’ve never had an actual job before where I went through the whole process. And the library had an opening just before my parents moved, which I did put in my application and walked in to hand it over, but they turned me down and said they already found someone…
But the hotel manager never fired me, and I stayed on as breakfast attendant. Until COVID happened.
They shut down their hot breakfast and the lobby, and instead, creating to-go bags. At that point, there was no need for a breakfast person to do anything since night audit starts the breakfast (and could easily make to-go bags since it was pre-packaged stuff). But they became short staffed at the front desk. One night auditor was fired for putting his membership account on other people’s accounts (so he’d earn points for the duration of someone’s stay). And the other night auditor quit because she’s an older woman with medical problems and was scared to get COVID. It’s hard to find a night auditor, especially a stable one, and when the job posting landed online, my parents found it and told my manager to use me… which gave me a small promotion.
I did front desk for a little over two years (between April of 2020 to June of 2022). There wasn’t much skill you could learn with such a job other than to apologize for things you have no control over and stay level-headed when a customer is mad and yelling at you for, again, something you have no control over.
My manager only trained me for two nights, on our slowest days. She showed me the basics, but there was still a lot I didn’t know until later on… and even then, there was still more to know that I didn’t (about the computer system). There were plenty of times within those first few months where she had to come in at 3am to fix something because I didn’t know what to do, and I’m thankful she did because most other managers wouldn’t.
But honestly, there wasn’t much to learn since I got the gist of customer service as I live in a family who is in multiple customer service industries. I’ve heard all the crazy stories, seen the worst from people, and it was a reason why I never wanted to be front desk at a hotel (one of the worst you could be). But I did it, and considering I was in a customer service position for two years, I believe it helped me land the library job. c:
Truthfully, while my job is still in customer service, it really is a step-up because I don’t get people yelling at me for things I have no control over anymore. Or haven’t yet, anyway. The worst I’ve dealt with so far within these last few months are rude people who have no patience or aren’t appreciative. It’s not often, though. Most people have been nice.
There was this one guy recently, though, who spoke Spanish and needed papers printed off from a thumb drive. We can’t use the front computers because they’re not connected to a printer, so I had to use my computer in the back to pull it up and print it off, and the guy didn’t understand why I was using my computer and said in what little English he knew, “If it’s a problem, give it back.” And he was rude about it, too. I told him to calm down and that I can print it off for him… did so, handed everything he needed to him, and then he threw a fit over why I couldn’t use the front computers.